@article {1618,
	title = {The effect of diet breadth and nesting ecology on body size variation in bees (Apiformes)},
	journal = {Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society},
	volume = {73},
	year = {2000},
	month = {2000///},
	pages = {180 - 193},
	abstract = {Body size in animals influences survival, fecundity, and mating opportunity. For bees, parental provisioning behavior largely controls offspring body size. Because larger offspring of many bee species have fitness advantages, selection on body size should act through selection on parental provisioning behavior and restrict body size variation of each species. Many bet species show great variability in body size, however, which may indicate that adult females are often constrained in their ability to consistently produce large offspring. We compared body size variation within bee species for two life history traits that could influence offspring body size: dietary breadth (specialist or generalist) and nesting habit (ground-nesting or cavity-nesting). We determined the head width (a reliable correlate of body size) of 2276 bees belonging to 31 bee species from five families and calculated the body size variation fur each species. Body size variation, measured as the coefficient of variation in head size, did not differ between pollen specialists (oligoleges) and pollen generalists (polyleges) across 13 pairs of closely-related, sympatric bee species of similar body size. Cavity-nesting species showed significantly greater variation in body size than ground-nesting species, which suggests that the choice of nest cavities utilized may be a more important predictor of offspring body size than parental body size. The cleptoparasite Coelioxys sayi had similar body size variation to one of its hosts, Megachile brevis. The European honey bee, Apis mellifera, showed the least body size variation of any species measured},
	keywords = {APIS, Apoidea, BEE SIZE, BEHAVIOR, BEHAVIOR-NESTING, CLEPTOPARASITE, ECOLOGY, FITNESS, LARVAL PROVISIONS, LIFE HISTORY, MEGACHILE, MORPHOLOGY, OLIGOLECTY, POLLEN, POLYLECTY, SELECTION, SIZE, VARIATION},
	author = {Roulston,T.H. and Cane, J. H.}
}
@article {1625,
	title = {Biology and management potential for three orchard bee species (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae): Osmia ribifloris Cockerell, O. lignaria (Say) and O. chalybea Smith, with emphasis on the former},
	volume = {810},
	year = {2009},
	month = {2009///},
	pages = {549 - 556},
	abstract = {What follows is comprehensive information on the biology and techniques for propagating select species of orchard bees for blueberry pollination, especially Osmia ribifloris Cockerell. Before we introduce O. ribifloris or any other bee species to a blueberry farm commercially, we must rear enough adults for field-scale release, design cheaper, lightweight nesting materials and increase grower awareness of the bee{\textquoteright}s value. We hope that by delivering reproductively viable bees onto farms, berry producers will gain a secondary source of revenue from selling surplus Osmia cocoons and nesting supplies. The results we present here represent 14 years of rearing orchard bees in the Deep South (Alabama and Mississippi), and should apply to blueberry growing regions west of the Mississippi River where one of the bee species, Osmia ribifloris, is endemic (e.g., Texas, California and Oregon). We also discuss some ecological, physiological and genetic costs of keeping a small pollinator population in captivity for almost a decade.},
	keywords = {ASTERACEAE, BEHAVIOR-FORAGING, BEHAVIOR-NESTING, LIFE HISTORY, Megachilidae, OSMIA, POLLINATION, POLLINATOR, VACCINIUM},
	author = {Sampson,B.J. and Cane, J. H. and Kirker,G.T. and Stringer,S.J. and Spiers,J.M.}
}
